HEADINGS
Meaning
and Symbolism .
Sandro Botticelli, The Mystic Nativity ;108.5 x 75cms;
1501 oil on panel, National Gallery London; inscription in base Greek;
"I Sandro, painted this picture at the end of the year 1500 [March
24th 1501 of the Roman calendar during the tribulations in Italy in
the half time after the time, in accordance with the eleventh chapter
of S. John in the second woe of the Apocalypse during the unchaining
of the devil for three and a half years; then he will be [fettered]
in accordance with the twelfth chapter as in this picture."
Botticelli's
Dante
Grace
- Truth - Justice
Faith - Hope - Charity
Simultaneity
in Islamic painting Abstraction and Symbolism;
St Hubert Bible, c1380 the time scheme of the Universe, the 4 elements
and mathematical relations. 19th C guides for Prayer,Iranian mizrah
, Polish, the face of Adam Kadmon. The development of the Universe,
c1700, scroll, Western India.
The Great Pavement of Westminster Abbey, 1268,
commissioned by Richard de Ware for Henry III
. click for image
THE INSCRIPTION "In the year of Christ one thousand two hundred and twelve plus sixty minus four, the third King Henry, the city, Odoricus and the abbot put these porphyry stones together.
If the reader wisely considers all that is laid down, he will find here the end of the primum mobile; a hedge (lives for) three years, add dogs and horses and men, stags and ravens, eagles, enormous whales, the world: each one following triples the years of the one before.
The spherical globe here shows the archetypal macrocosm."
TIMETEXT "Four years before this Year of Our Lord 1272, King Henry III,
the Court of Rome, Odoricus and the Abbot set in place these porphrystones.
If the reader wittingly reflects upon all that is laid down here he
will discover here the primum mobile: the hedge stands for three years,
add in turn dogs and horses and men, stags and ravens, eagles, huge
sea monsters, the world: each that follows triples the years of the
one before."
Here is the perfectly rounded sphere which reveals the eternal pattern
of the universe." compare to
"A year for the stake. Three years for the field
Three lifetimes of the field for the hound.
Three Lifetimes of the hound for the horse.
Three lifetimes of the horse for the human being.
Three lifetimes of the human being for the stag.
Three lifetimes of the stag for the ousel.
Three lifetimes of the ousel for the eagel.
Three lifetimes of the eagle for the salmon.
Three lifetimes of the salmon for the yew.
Three lifetimes of the yew for the world
from the begining to its end, ut dixit poeta."
Irish traditional
rhyme, from The Book of Lismore , c 1270, trans. Whitley
Stokes, quoted in Richard Foster, Patterns of Thought, The Hidden
Meaning of the Great Pavement of Westminster Abbey, Cape, London,
1991.
from a dealer's catalogue, 1908.
Jerry Cooke, Mal-o-Mars, photo.1948
"The picture is quiet and true. Since I am writing about photography
let me point out that this picture is a better partof the story at hand
than either a drawing or a painting would be. There is a profitable
and well-run cracker firm in a sweaty part of the town, there is a knot
of men talking on the pavement about anything but crackers, amidst the
irrelevant trucks. This is where Mal-o-Mars are cooked and this is where
last week's newspaper meets the gutter too. And the Strand Hotel becomes
famous for flavour. My point is Fortune photographs should take a long
look at a subject, get into it, and without shouting, tell a lot about
it." to Ralph Paine, 23.7.48
George Hardie; The
Woiks ,for Trickett and Webb's Calendar.
J.J.Orlers, La
Geneologie des illustres comtes de Nassau, Leiden, published
by the author, 1615, and a miscellany of telling events encountered
in the one image. This is, in fact a family history but expanded to
mythic dimensions.
|